The patrol that changes everything
by tessacarstairsgray
Summary: Lily's on patrol alone that night in her 7th year at Hogwarts. James, the headboy, is out at the full moon. She's in the dungeons, overhearing a few Slytherins and that changes everything. One-shot of how Jily finally got together.


Lily was on patrol tonight. Usually she was on patrol with James, since they are headgirl and headboy, but tonight is a full moon so she is alone. She had known about Remus' secret for a long time, since fourth year. But only this year she learned what the other three marauders part at the full moon is. When James had first told her she was shocked, after all it's illegal to be an unregistered animagus. But the more she thought about it the more she had to acknowledge that it's kind of brilliant. That they did that to help Remus and make him feel better, they were really good friends.

She's in the dungeons, but she doesn't concentrate on checking rooms and broom cupboards, she always has to think about what she realised not that long ago.

James. All those years she had said she hated him and they became friends only last year, but now she can't imagine her life without him being a part of it. She loves being around him, talking to him and laughing with him and she realised that what she felt for him wasn't just what friends feel for each other. She fancied him. So she walks through the dungeons, lost in thought, when she hears the voices of two male Slytherin's she knows just too well.

"I say we go for Potter and teach him a lesson. No blood traitor and mudblood lover should get out of something like this unharmed." Mulciber said.

Lily was sure he meant the incident in the Great Hall that morning. The marauders hexed the benches at Slytherin table so they collapsed when they sat on them. It was hilarious to watch, even she had to admit that.

"But Potter doesn't get angry easily, that's boring. I say we go for Black. You just have to mention Regulus' name and he's about to hex you, that's way more fun." That was Avery.

"Or we just go for both of them. You barely get them alone anyway, they do anything together." That was Bellatrix Lestrange, Lily hadn't heard her voice before. She had wanted to go and get a teacher, she wouldn't be able to pick up a fight with all three of them and come out of it unharmed, but she couldn't move.

"Do you think that's a good idea Bella? We tried that once and you remember how that ended." Avery argued.

"That was in 5th year, we all know better hexes now and they will be totally unprepared." Bellatrix replied.

"She's right. Let's have some fun, Avery!" That was Mulciber again.

"Okay, but only if you promise that you won't go too far. I don't want to clean up your mess again!"

And then they turned around the corner and into the corridor Lily was still standing in. She couldn't move her feet, but her hand closed around her wand.

"Oh look who's here. You lost, mudblood?" Bellatrix said, an evil smile on her face.

"I'm on patrols so you better go to your common room, before I give you detention." Somehow Lily's voice was steady and confident, but inside she was nervous and frantically searching for a way out of this situation.

They just laughed. "Yes, because we are so frightened of getting detention. How long were you standing there mudblood?" Mulciber asked.

"Long enough and I won't let you hurt them!" She replied.

"Boys why don't we teach Potter a lesson through her? That would do as well as hexing himself, if not better. He has a crush on her since forever." Bellatrix said excited and somehow proud that she had the idea.

"Yes Bella, that sounds good." Mulciber said, smiling.

The next second everyone had their wand in hand, the three Slytherins confidently and Lily nervous and thinking of hexes she could use.

She shouted "STUPOR!" at the same time all three of them shouted "CRUCIO!". She saw Mulciber going stiff and falling to the ground, but then she just felt pain. She had to keep herself from crying out, but the pain got more and more, it was like her whole body was burning and breaking. Her vision went blurry and she tried to shoot a hex at them, but Avery saw what she was about to do and said "Expelliarmus" and her wand flew away from her reach. The pain got more and more intense and she heard Bellatrix laugh, a crazy cackling sound. She went down on her knees, it was like her body was to heavy for her feet to carry her.

"Let's play mudblood." Bellatrix said and then Lily was in the air, just hanging there for a few seconds, before she crushed on the cold stone floor of the dungeons. She heard a crack and hot pain shot up her leg. She cried out and the Slytherins laughed again.

Lily didn't know how much time had gone by, she just felt the pain of her bones breaking, her split lip she had got when they let her fall on her face and more than everything the firely pain of the Cruciatus curse. She didn't know when she started crying, but the tears were constantly streaming down her face. She hated crying in front of people, especially people she hated or didn't know, but she didn't think of that and she couldn't have forced the tears back anyway. Everything was pain, pain and more pain. She had closed her eyes a long time ago, so she didn't have to see their laughing faces and now she couldn't open them, even if she wanted to.

And then the pain was away. All at once, but she still couldn't stop crying and shaking.

"That's enough. If you do it any longer there might be too serious damage." Avery said.

"She's only a mudblood. How could you do too much damage to someone like her?" Bellatrix asked and Lily could hear the amusement she got out of torturing her in her voice.

"We're still in Hogwarts. You'll have to wait Bella." Avery's voice was strict.

"A shame really. But the fun now is were do we put her? We want Potter to find her after all."

"He's out on the grounds I think. I saw him there earlier." Mulciber said, they must have freed him from her hex some time ago.

Bellatrix still wanted to teach James a lesson. Lily couldn't believe it and she didn't want him to see her like that, weak and defeated. But there was nothing she could do, she couldn't even move a finger and before she really knew she fell unconscious.

"Maybe we could go a bit deeper into the eastern part of the forrest next time. What do you think Prongs?" Sirius asked him. They were walking up the stairs that led to the portal and into the entrance hall.

"Yes, I think we should. We know the western part by heart and in the north and south isn't anything that's terribly interesting anyway and I want to see everything of the forrest before we graduate." James replied.

"I heard there were werewolves in the eastern part." Peter said, a bit anxious.

"Pete, you discover the forrest with a werewolve since two years." Sirius deadpanned.

"Well yes but Re-"

"Don't! Someone could hear you." James interrupted while opening the portal.

"Sorry Prongs." To Sirius he said "He isn't wild, or at least not with us near him, we can't say that for the others."

"When we are Prongs, Wormtail and Padfoot nothing can happen to us." Sirius argued.

"Maybe for you two, I wouldn't be so sure that they don't eat rats!"

"Pete." Sirius sighed but he got interrupted by James.

"Lily!"

"No Prongs, it's Sirius and I'm way prettier!"

"Shut up Sirius!"

James had run to a figure on the floor in the middle of the entrance hall.

"Oh shit what- ?" Sirius started as he went to James' side.

"We have to get her to Madame Pomfrey, Prongs. That looks pretty bad." Sirius said as he looked at Lily. She was covered in blood and her arms and one of her legs stood away in a weird way, they could only be broken and she was unconscious. Next to her something was written on the floor and it looked like it was written in her blood, which made all of them feel sick. _That should teach you a lesson. Mudblood lovers and blood traitors have to pay in some way_. Sirius could see James getting angrier by the second. Sirius himself wanted to kick some Slytherin ass for what they had done to Lily, because who else could it have been. But getting Lily off the cold floor and into the hospital wing was more important right now.

"Come on Prongs. We'll get her to Madame Pomfrey." At first it was like James hadn't heared him but then he nodded and carefully lifted Lily into his arms. He was shaking of anger and fear for her, that maybe they did something to her that even Madame Pomfrey couldn't fix.

"She'll be fine." Sirius tried to reassure him, but he worried himself.

Once they were in the hospital wing and Madame Pomfrey took care of Lily, they had to go and get Dumbledore. James hadn't wanted to leave her but Madame Pomfrey hushed them all out. They all got back in with Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall though. Lily was lying on an infirmary bed still in her bloody clothes, Madame Pomfrey leaning over her.

They heared McGonagall gasp and mutter something like "Oh the poor girl!"

Dumbledore stood at Lily's bed talking to Madame Pomfrey and Sirius and James walked to them to hear what they were saying. McGonagall hold Peter back, asking him what had happened.

"How bad is it Poppy?" Dumbledore was asking.

"She has a broken leg, both arms and several rips are broken as well, her lip is split, she has a concussion and bruises everywhere. And that's only the physical damage. The poor girl has to be through a lot." She looked at Lily pitying.

"Do you think it's safe to look at her memory of this evening?" Dumbledore asked seriously, looking over the glasses of his half-moon glasses.

"It should be, yes." Madame Pomfrey replied and Dumbledore took a vial out of his pocket. James wondered, in the back of his mind, if he always had one with him, but his main thoughts didn't care about the vial. All he could think about was Lily and what had possibly happened to her. Dumbledore put his wand at her temple and a silvery-white strand appeared and he bottled it. "I will leave you to take care of her now." And with that, he left. James and Sirius were about to go to Lily when they heared McGonagall call out. "You three better come to my bureau with me."

"But-" James started

"No buts, Mister Potter." Her voice was stern.

McGonagall's questioning took very long, too long for the taste of the three marauders. She wanted to know every detail and they had quite a difficult time explaining why they were in the entrance hall at 2am. But at last she seemed to accept the story that they were going to the kitchens for a late night snack. She also wanted to know everything about the sentences, written in blood, next to Lily. Just everything. And the three told her everything, besides the fact that they were with Remus of course. After she released them Peter went to Gryffindor tower, but James and Sirius went back to the hospital wing.

Lily was in a white nightgown now and there was no more blood to see, but many bandages. They sat both at each side of her bed and said nothing.

Madame Pomfrey came and said " You two should go to bed."

"I won't leave her." James said.

"But she won't wake up anytime soon." At the shocked look on their faces she added "Professor Dumbledore said it would be for her best if she slept for a few days, maybe three or four, so her body can recover before her mind starts recovering as well. It could be to much for her." She looked at Lily pitying again.

"I stay here anyway." James said.

" I stay with you." Sirius said to James. And then they sat in silence again, thinking about what had happened this evening.

They don't know how long they sat like this when Dumbledore came in, a very serious expression on his face. "I think you two should come with me, Miss Evans is in good hands and I want to show you something."

"I'm sure you noticed that I have Miss Evans' memories of the night and I have to say, we're lucky that the attackers haven't cast a spell to make her forget about their faces and voices."

"You mean you can punish the assholes who did this?" Sirius asked.

"Well yes, I can. I'd like to show you Miss Evans memory, because I think you should know what happened. That is, if you want to see it of course. But I have to warn you, what you will see is horrible." Dumbledore watched as they both nodded. "Well then, come here..."

After seeing the memory both, Sirius and James were shaking with anger.

"I'll go right down into the dungeons and teach _them_ a lesson!" James nearly shouted.

"I sure as hell help you!" Sirius replied.

"I didn't show you the memory so you'll go and get revenge. I wanted you to understand why that happened."

"Because of us. They made that clear" Sirius said.

"Exactly. And Miss Evans defended you, so she became the target of their cruelty. Do you think she would want you to walk up to them and fight them?"

"No" Sirius and James said, now a bit ashamed that they let their anger control them.

"I thought so. And now would you please sit down?" Dumbledore waved at the two chairs in front of his desk.

They sat down, James keeping his face in his hands, Sirius clenching and unclenching his fists. It was silent for a long time.

"What are you going to do?" James asked Dumbledore after a while.

"I'll have to wait for Miss Evans to wake up, she'll has to tell me what happened, so we can be sure the memory is true, though I don't have much of a doubt that it is."

Sirius nodded, James just looked down again.

"I wanted to you see her memory so you understand why things happened like they did, like I said. But I also wanted to show you that she didn't went down without a fight. Three against one is just not fair and she had no chance, but she has a lot of courage and she tried to stop them from harming you, so please remember that in the future. Madame Pomfrey said no physical damage will be left."

James and Sirius let out a sigh of relief.

"As I know Hogwarts, by tomorrow everyone will know about the incident with Miss Evans and many students will want to go to the hospital wing, so I ask you, since you know Miss Evans and she obviously trusts you, who can be trusted with visiting her."

"Marlene McKinnon" Sirius replied immediately "They are best friends."

"Also Dorcas Meadowes, she's always with them." James jumped in.

"And James, Remus and I. Do you think Pete too, Prongs? It never seemed like they were good friends."

"They come along, but I don't think it would be the best idea. Pete always feels uncomfortable around the girls, I don't know why. Marlene, Dorcas, Remus, you and me. That should be everyone I think."

Dumbledore nods. "That's everything. You can go either to your dorm or back to Miss Evans now. But make sure you attend the lessons."

"Yes sir." Sirius said and they walked out of the office.

For the last three days, James, Sirius, Marlene, Dorcas and Remus were always at Lily's side. Not all at once of course, they made a plan at what time who's with her. Marlene and Dorcas had been very upset when they got to know what happened to Lily and had wanted to hex the Slytherins, but they didn't because they knew Dumbledore would punish them soon enough. Remus was upset as well, he said that the prank went to far, but the others argued that the Slytherins had overreacted and it's still no reason to do something like this.

Right now Sirius was with Lily, he just came to relieve Marlene and in about three hours James would come. Sirius still couldn't believe what happened and _why_ it happened. He would have never thought that -

"Sirius?" Lily's croaked voices stopped his thoughts.

"Evans! You're awake! How-" Sirius looked at her concerned.

Before he could finish his question Madame Pomfrey came behind the curtain that was around Lily's bed.

"Mister Black you wait outside. I have to evaluate her, to make sure everything's alright." She said.

"See you later, Evans." With that he stepped on the other side of the curtain, but he didn't leave the hospital wing. He just sat on a bed and waited. Dumbledore came in pretty quickly afterwards and Sirius was quite he came to question her. He and Madame Pomfrey were in there for a long time, sometimes he heared a gasp or a strangled noise, though it sounded more like Madame Pomfrey than Lily.

When he finally was allowed to go to Lily again she seemed pretty annoyed.

"You made Pomfrey cry?" He asked, grinning.

"You would think she is used to bad stories as a healer at Hogwarts, but she always speaks of _how traumatized I have to be after everything_. Pfff" She rolled her eyes.

"Good to have you back Evans." Sirius said.

"Yes." Lily smiled as well. "I can't believe they let me sleep for three days. I have missed so many lessons and all the homework I have to do!"

"You're really the only one who would get upset about that." He rolled his eyes. She hit is arm playfully and they both have to laugh.

"You know I would have never thought that you'd do something like that for me. Of course I know that you did it for James mainly, but still. I am thankful."

"How much do you know?" Lily eyed him.

"Dumbledore showed James and me your memory, he thought we should know that you stood up for us." Sirius said.

"You know, at first I wanted to go and tell a teacher but my feet wouldn't move. I had no choice but to stay." She looked down, ashamed that he thought so good of her and that she wasn't like he said at all.

"Still, I heard what you said, Lily. _Long enough and I won't let you hurt them_. You defended us."

"Maybe." She said a small smile on her face. "But you should know that I didn't think mainly about defending James, I thought about both of you. You're both my friends."

"Yeah, but you feel a lot more than friendship for James." Sirius laughed, seeing the shocked look on her face. "Oh come on Evans. It's obvious!"

"It is?" Lily chewed her lower lip.

"It's not like it's a bad thing."

"Yes, I think I have to tell him. That night, they could have killed me and I would have never had the chance to tell him. I have so many things to do and everything could be over any second. It was stupid of me to think he would be safer when I don't admit my feelings for him. We're all in danger anyway."

"So you needed to get attacked to figure that out?" She hit him again. "Ouch. Okay, okay. But you have to admit it took you quite a while." He said smiling.

"I know. Thank you Sirius."

"What for?"

"For acting normal around me. I can't stand it when people pity me or think they have to show consideration for me."

"Well I never was the type to do that sort of thing. I wouldn't be so sure about your other friends though."

"I know." Lily sighed.

Lily had fallen asleep again long before James came. When he came Sirius told him that she was awake earlier and that she should wake up again soon. So now he sat here, waiting for her to wake up, though he had no idea what he would say to her.

She shifted, opened her eyes and yawned. "Hey Lils."

"Hey James."

"How are you?"

"Fine. Still a bit tired, despite the fact that I slept for three days."

"Moony copied his notes, so you didn't miss to much. You're sure you're okay?"

Lily sighed. "Yes I'm sure."

"Right sorry, I know you hate it when people are too concerned about you."

That was followed by silence.

"Listen James-"

"Lily-"

"You first" James said.

She took a deep breath. "I know from Sirius that you've seen my memory and Sirius said Dumbledore made you be thankful for what I did but-"

"We would have been thankful without him telling us so."

"I know, that's not what I meant. At first I didn't hear them at all, I was lost in my thoughts, and after I heard them I couldn't move. I had no choice but to fight them when they rounded the corner and pulled out their wands."

"I heard what you said-"

"I know, I had that argument with Sirius earlier and I know I can't change what you believe, I just wanted you to know."

James nodded. "What were you thinking about?"

Lily blushed. "What?"

"You said you were lost in your thoughts before you hearded them."

"Oh, yes. I, uhm... I was... I was thinking about us." Lily blushed even harder and quickly looked away.

"Us?" James asked astonished.

"Yes." Lily started talking really quickly now, as if she was eager to finally say it. "I've been for a while. I love being around you, talking to you, the way we make each other laugh. And I didn't tell you anything of my feelings because I thought that would endanger you even more, but after what happened that night I know that it's stupid and that we're all in danger anyway and you probably don't feel anything for me anymore and I know that's all my fault because I kept you waiting for too long, but I-"

"Lily. Stop." James looked her in the eye. Hazel met emerald green. He leaned forward and kissed her carefully. She relaxed, as if a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders and her hands found their way in his hair. As they broke apart they both smiled. For once they didn't think about the past or the future. All that counted was the present and who they spent it with.


End file.
